--- title: The poor woman said, with tears in her eyes: “I should be the happie… — English Fairy Tales · tree and pragmatics description: The poor woman said, with tears in her eyes: “I should be the happiest creature in the world if I had a son; although he was no bigger than my husband's thumb, I would be satisfied.” Who acts: poor woman, Merlin. A sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The History of Tom Thumb, with it --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/28/6/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [English Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/) / [The History of Tom Thumb](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/28/) / 6 # English Fairy Tales, The History of Tom Thumb, sentence 6 The poor woman said, with tears in her eyes: “I should be the happiest creature in the world if I had a son; although he was no bigger than my husband's thumb, I would be satisfied.” **Who acts:** poor woman, Merlin · **What happens:** say, be, have, not be · **To what, where:** tears, eyes, happiest creature, world, son · **Speech:** someone speaks here This is a sentence of «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, The History of Tom Thumb. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (poor woman, Merlin), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree. **Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong. ## The tree {#tree} ```conllu # sent_id = book:pg7439:28:6 # text = The poor woman said, with tears in her eyes: “I should be the happiest creature in the world if I had a son; although he was no bigger than my husband's thumb, I would be satisfied.” 1 The the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 3 det _ _ 2 poor poor ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 3 amod _ _ 3 woman woman NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 nsubj _ _ 4 said say VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 0 root _ SpaceAfter=No 5 , , PUNCT , _ 7 punct _ _ 6 with with ADP IN _ 7 case _ _ 7 tears tear NOUN NNS Number=Plur 4 obj _ _ 8 in in ADP IN _ 10 case _ _ 9 her her PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Gender=Fem|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 10 nmod:poss _ _ 10 eyes eye NOUN NNS Number=Plur 7 nmod _ SpaceAfter=No 11 : : PUNCT : _ 18 punct _ _ 12 “ " PUNCT `` _ 18 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 13 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 18 nsubj _ _ 14 should should AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 18 aux _ _ 15 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 18 cop _ _ 16 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 18 det _ _ 17 happiest happy ADJ JJS Degree=Sup 18 amod _ _ 18 creature creature NOUN NN Number=Sing 4 ccomp _ _ 19 in in ADP IN _ 21 case _ _ 20 the the DET DT Definite=Def|PronType=Art 21 det _ _ 21 world world NOUN NN Number=Sing 18 nmod _ _ 22 if if SCONJ IN _ 24 mark _ _ 23 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 24 nsubj _ _ 24 had have VERB VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 4 ccomp _ _ 25 a a DET DT Definite=Ind|PronType=Art 26 det _ _ 26 son son NOUN NN Number=Sing 24 obj _ SpaceAfter=No 27 ; ; PUNCT , _ 32 punct _ _ 28 although although SCONJ IN _ 32 mark _ _ 29 he he PRON PRP Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs 32 nsubj _ _ 30 was be AUX VBD Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin 32 cop _ _ 31 no no ADV RB _ 32 advmod _ _ 32 bigger big ADJ JJR Degree=Cmp 24 conj _ _ 33 than than ADP IN _ 37 case _ _ 34 my my PRON PRP$ Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs 35 nmod:poss _ _ 35 husband husband NOUN NN Number=Sing 37 nmod:poss _ SpaceAfter=No 36 's 's PART POS _ 35 case _ _ 37 thumb thumb NOUN NN Number=Sing 42 obl _ SpaceAfter=No 38 , , PUNCT , _ 37 punct _ _ 39 I I PRON PRP Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs 42 nsubj _ _ 40 would would AUX MD VerbForm=Fin 42 aux _ _ 41 be be AUX VB VerbForm=Inf 42 cop _ _ 42 satisfied satisfied ADJ JJ Degree=Pos 32 advcl _ SpaceAfter=No 43 . . PUNCT . _ 4 punct _ SpaceAfter=No 44 ” " PUNCT '' _ 4 punct _ _ ``` ## Pragmatics {#pragmatics} | # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the poor woman | tears | | woman's eyes | | | tree rules | | 2 | **is a** *in a quote* | should | the poor woman *= woman* | the happiest creature | | the world | | | tree rules | | 3 | **have** *a condition, not said to happen, in a quote* | past | the poor woman *= woman* | a son | | | | | vn birth-28.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent son=Patient | | 4 | **not** **is** *in a quote* | past | Merlin | | | | | big *property* | tree rules | | 5 | **is** *in a quote* | would | the poor woman *= woman* | | | | | than my husband's thumb; satisfied *property* | tree rules | One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree. **Text:** «English Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs, Project Gutenberg book 7439 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order. - ← previous: [sentence 5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/28/5/) - next →: [sentence 7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/28/7/) - ↑ back to [The History of Tom Thumb](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7439/28/)